The story
An education center built from the ground beneath it.
City Cottage Education Center was proposed as a bridge between students in rural Malawi and learning communities beyond the region. Digital connection is part of the program, but the architectural idea begins with something local and physical: rammed earth. Thick earthen walls offer thermal mass, use material available close to the site, and turn construction into a visible lesson in sustainable building.
Classrooms and shared learning spaces are intended to support both local instruction and exchange with students elsewhere, giving the center a role larger than a conventional schoolroom. Journeyman International’s design work sought to pair contemporary educational tools with a building system that local craftspeople could understand, adapt, and maintain. The project remains a proposal whose strength is the contrast it resolves: global connection housed within architecture that is materially rooted in Malawi.